Lavender Shortbread

This most popular cookie of 2009 is also the most requested recipe of the season, so as a gift to all of you...here it is!
Lavender Shortbread
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter...softened
2/3 cup sugar- granulated
2 Tablespoons dried lavender flowers
2 teaspoons fresh mint
Cream all above ingredients until fluffy
Combine in separate bowl:
2 1/3 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
Stir into butter mixture until well combined.
Press into 9x13 inch pan greased and lined with parchment, and chill thoroughly.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and score the shortbread with a sharp knife into the desired size pieces.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until browned around edges and no longer opaque in the center.
Let cool to just warm and recut score marks. Cool completely before dipping.
To dip: Melt white chocolate over just simmering water until smooth. Dip one side of cookie into chocolate and scrape off excess on side of bowl. lay on clean parchment on small sheetpan. cool until chocolate is hard.
Then enjoy your trip to cookie nirvana!

English Toffee

This is a classic favorite we have been making for years. The most important thing is to use an accurate candy thermometer or have a solid grip on the cold water test. If it's not brought all the way to 320 degrees, it will be more taffy than toffee and a filling breaker at that!
1# butter - melted
1# sugar (about 2 cups) - granulated
4 oz water
stir together in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. attach a candy thermometer on the side and cook over med heat until mixture registers 310 degrees (the top side of Hard Crack Stage) immediately pour onto a sheetpan fitted with a parchment paper liner... tilt pan slightly to distibute, or smooth carefully with a spatula, work quickly! Let cool about 10 minutes until sugar is hard, but still hot. sprinkle on chocolate chips (we use semi sweet, though Dark or milk would work here, too) It takes about 2 cups. Let sit until chocolate is shiny, about 15 minutes. spread melted chips smooth (an offset spatula works great for this) and sprinkle on finely chopped nuts (we use pecans, but again, you could use walnuts or even slivered almonds) let cool completely. A quick trip to the fridge once it's room temp will help set the chocolate and firm things up. Break into pieces and package as desired. Will keep in an airtight container for 2 months...unless it's at my house!

Roast Chicken

We make alot of roast chicken...not something we serve here at the bakery, necessarily, but it is a staple on our dinner repetoire when asked to cater casual dinners...not to mention for chicken soup...which we made 3 times last week now that flu has hit town!
We buy free range, mostly, often organic,( but sometimes we can't justify the doubled price tag.)
Start by rinsing chicken well and pat dry lightly with paper towel let sit to air dry a moment while you prepare the mirepoix base.
This one has onion, celery and sweet potato

line the bottom of your roasting pan with the aromatics and place the chickens on top.
Core and cut into thick slices, one green apple and stuff it into the cavity
rub the skins with olive oil and sprinkle with a healthy layer of salt and a few grinds of the pepper mill
Add any spices you wish to this layer...thyme is a favorite
Fold the cavity closed and pull the legs together over the opening. use a 6" skewer to keep the legs together
(Some folks insist trussing is the only way, but, we think this works as well)
Pour about an inch of water into the bottom of the pan and place in a preheated 350 dgree oven (moderate heat)
uncovered. depending on the size of your bird, it will take 1 1/2 to two hours to roast. It should register 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer when done. (or the leg will pull away easily and the juices run clear) Let rest 15 minutes before carving.

This is where the brick oven really shines. It makes some lovely breads, it's true, but meats roasted this way are spectacular!

Lemonade...a little summer in a glass!

We are not big soda people around here...we don't sell anything in a can or bottle actually. We make ice tea and all the steamers and the coffee drinks possible, but when people want something cold and refreshing...we give them our homemade lemonade. I originally found the recipe for this in an old Joy of cooking and I loved the fact that it used all the lemon...skins and all. In the end, the rinds all sugared and dried, have become the most popular part! I have to say, the lemonade itself is pretty darn good, too!

Using a potato peeler, peel the lemons, being careful to only take off the yellow skin, leaving the bitter white pith behind.

Put in a pot with sugar and water and gently bring to a simmer...cook 10 minutes until sugar is very well dissolved and rinds are transparent and curly.

While the above mixture simmers, juice the lemons. once syrup is done, cool slightly and strain into the juice. That is your lemonade concentrate. Take the rinds and sprinkle with granulated sugar to coat. spread out on parchment paper and let dry.
To assemble, fill a glass half way with ice, the water to an inch or so from the top then top off with your concentrate. (we use about 3 ounces of concentrate in a 16 ounce glass) Put your dried lemon peel on top, and you have summer in a glass!

p.s. It goes great with gin or tequila, for a little after work refresher!
p.s.s. You could also do this with limes...marguarita's anyone?
p.s.s.s. Big Thanks to Donna Turner Ruhlman for her allowing me to ask the silliest of photography questions ("Yes, a white card is just that...a white card! Who knew!) and for sharing her knowledge with so much encouragement!

'No Knead' Multigrain Bread

As people are starting to make more healthful food choices, this has become one of our most popular breads. It is completely whole grain, with a soft texture and enough structure to hold up to the biggest sandwich. We make focaccia out of it for our roasted vegetable sandwiches and even turn it into cardamom sweet rolls.
To begin:
Soak 2/3 cup (.25 lbs) 10 grain cereal. (I'm using Bob's Red Mill)
in a large bowl with 4 cups warm water for 1 1/2 hours.
Add 1 and 1/2 T (2pkgs or 1/2 oz.) Active Dry Yeast and let sit 30 minutes more...
Stir in:
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
8 cups of Whole Wheat flour (2.25 lbs.)...one cup at a time, stirring well with each addition.
Before the last cup of flour add 1 more cup of water and 1 and 1/2 tablespoon salt.
Stir the mixture as though folding it into the center, spinning the bowl as you go.


Once it is pulled together, cover and let sit for 1 hour
Pull dough together in the bowl once again by running your spatula along the side of the bowl, pulling the dough into the center. cover and let rise 30 minutes more.

Turn out onto a well floured board and divide into 3rds. Briefly knead each portion into a ball. let sit 15 minutes.
pull rounds together into a loaf shape, being sure to get rid of the air bubbles and put into well oiled loaf pans. slash the tops and let rise 45 minutes or until a poke of your finger doesn't bounce back.


Spray the tops with water and sprinkle with a little of the dry cereal.
Bake for about 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven to an
interior temperature of 200 degrees.

Bread and Butter Pickles...a memory of taste

For the first four years of my life I lived with my grandmother, along with my three older siblings. We were quite a handful, I'm told and my grandparents were old school... it was german farm life...washing on Monday, ironing on Tuesday, baking bread on Wednesday. Each season had it's own list of tasks, always preparing, planning or harvesting something or lots of things.As strict as they could be, we had dessert every night after dinner and I loved Thursday because it was chocolate pudding day. Grandma would make it in the afternoon and pour it into individual bowls and let it cool on the counter, where it would form the best skin. I know now that it's preferrable to cover your pudding to avoid the top drying out, but when I was a kid, it was my favorite part. The other absolute favorite thing my grandmother made every year was bread and butter pickles. They were always brought out at dinner, and had they allowed me to have more than 'just a little' I surely would've eaten a jar a night. We moved out of their house about the time I started school and whenever grandma visited she would bring me a fresh jar. It made the difficult transition somehow easier knowing I had something of her around always. (I know, they were just pickles...give me a break, I was five!)
Still, whenever I miss my grandmother, (who died 20 years ago!)... to conjure her up, I make a batch of her pickles.

Granny T's Bread and Butter Pickles

6 Qts or 15- 6" cukes, sliced thin
6 medium onions, sliced thin
1/2 cup pickling salt
mix these together thoroughly in a large glass bowl
Let sit 3 hours and then drain, but do not rinse
in a large stainless pot mix:
6 cups white vinegar
4 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup whole yellow mustard seed
1 teaspoon celery seed
Bring brine to a boil, add cukes and bring back to a low boil.
ladle into hot jars and process in a hot water bath 10 minutes
Yield about 8 pints

Raspberry JAM!

I'm not as much of a forager/preserver as I perhaps should be, especially living in a place with so much to offer the hunter-gatherer types. We have a freezer full of rockfish and that's about it...except for raspberry jam. It's a huge staple around here, both on toast in the morning and pb&j's for sack lunches. We need about 24 pints to make it through winter...and if you know anything about alaskan winters you'll completely understand why this is so important! This year was almost a bust in that department...normally we would have been picking mid-august, but it wasn't until a week ago that they finally started to pop. Of course the rain and stormy weather kept me from getting out on Wed. my day off...so, I was relieved to get a little break in the weather to get out today, and boy was it fun! My good friend Jane (owner of the best yard in Homer!) has the most amazing raspberry patch I have ever seen...and in the dozen years I've known her, the berries are always plentiful and her generosity at letting so many of us come to pick is the stuff of legend. The stalks are 6 feet high and the berries the size of my thumb (and then some!) all surrounding a lovely patch of grass looking over the bay with a cottonwood tree so big it has a buoy swing (the alaskan equivelent of a tire swing) hanging from it's branches. The kids run around and play while the grown-ups chat and pick furiously. I got so worked up talking about Sarah Palin I had three buckets full before I knew it! At least she's good for something,eh?
Enough politics...let's make jam!


First we put our clean jars in a big pan half filled with water, put the lid on and set it to boiling. The lids go into a smaller pan also half filled with water and also set to boiling.
Then we measured 4 cups of berries and 6 1/2 cups of sugar into our stainless pot and brought it to a rolling boil, stirring most of the time. (daughter Jane was mostly a big help at this) add 1 packet of liquid pectin and boil and stir for exactly one minute. turn off heat. using tongs, pull jars from hot water bath and fill to within 1/4 inch from the rim.
and again with the tongs pull the lids out of smaller pot placing them on the hot jars

and securing with the screw on metal rings.
I like to turn them over on a towel at this point until they cool completely when we will check the seals and store away in a cool dark spot.


We got our two cases done just in time to catch our good friend Tom Kizzia appear on CNN to help shed a little light on all this Sarah MADNESS!
Jam is done, back to politics!